Speculative Fiction—an all-encompassing genre created to describe stories of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and other stories that have an element of “What if...” in them. A story in speculative fiction is one that adds an element of the unreal, or asks, what would become of our society if history took a different direction at some important event? Fiction with a little something extra thrown in.—William D. Richards

A Dark Inheritance by Erme Lander

About A Dark Inheritance:

When
Tina Johnson, single mother, forty, wakes up in an isolated castle in
Central Europe she simply wants to return to her daughter as quickly as
possible. She doesn’t expect to find that she has been kidnapped and
brought into a world where power is the key to survival and sanity is an
optional extra.
Tina discovers she has been watched for many years,
she has a rare genetic structure that makes her attractive to vampires
and has the possibility of living for well over a century, if she allows
herself to become infected. Kalmár has stolen her and intends to keep
her captive, hiding her from both her family and other vampires. She
meets Wolfie, his bonded servant, unable to disobey the orders given by
his master whether he wishes to or not. Normality becomes a frightening
place as Tina struggles to escape those holding her and to fights to
keep her daughter, her lover and her freedom.

Excerpt:

Later she lay on her bed,
staring at the old-fashioned walls, not seeing them. Called herself a coward
for not acting decisively and tried not to think about the horrendous intimacy
of a man who fed from her, sucking her blood to survive. Brooding over the locked
doors and being hundreds of miles away from friends and family. No way to
contact them. She sank into a pit of despair.

Tina curled up under her
bedclothes having refused all Wolfie’s entreaties to come down during the night
and woke with a horror creeping over her. She couldn’t see anything in the dark
room, her skin crawled as she tried not to panic.

She lay and feigned sleep. Tried
to keep her breathing steady and strained her ears past the blood pounding
through them. A soft rustle of clothing and she caught the smell of him. He was
in the room with her, she frantically tried to work out where he might be. She
had a lamp on the table next to the bed. As though shifting in her sleep, Tina
rolled towards it. Her hand reached out and she smothered a shriek as her wrist
was grasped by long cool fingers.

“You make this too easy Ms
Johnson.” Trying to wriggle free, she slapped in his direction with her other
hand. He took that wrist too and pinned her to the bed, pulling her head back
by her hair to expose her throat. Tina froze and whimpered, expecting him to
bite as his mouth came into contact with her. Kalmár merely held her down and brushed
his lips against her neck.

Point made, he reached over
and threw her clothes on top of her. “I expect you downstairs, Ms Johnson.” This
time she heard his heels click as he walked to the door. She lay, panting and
crying through helplessness. The thought of what he might do next drove her to
switch the light on. The room was empty. Sniffing, Tina pulled her jeans on and
wiped her face on her sleeve. She walked slowly to the library, hating herself
for giving in but not daring to rebel any further.

Kalmár greeted her as she
entered and gestured to a chair. She curled up, rebellion limited to glaring at
him. He picked up his book and glasses and ignored the look. “You are easier to
train than a dog Ms Johnson. You understand consequences.”

Past caring, she muttered
back at him, “I wouldn’t train a dog like this. They end up hating you.”

He refused to look at her
as he found his way to his bookmarked page, “I do not require your eternal love
or devotion Ms Johnson, merely what is inside your veins.”

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